Keep it zipped

The suggestion of undressing is central to the allure of dressing. That is to say, much of the point of clothes is to make people want to take them off. Ribbons and lace at the neckline or hem of a dress are there to put the onlooker in mind of the lingerie that they imagine they might peek beneath. (Amy Winehouse's strange trademark look of wearing two or three bra straps in different colours visible beneath her ribbed vest is a crazy person's interpretation of the same concept.)

After several years when stylish women have been be-ribboned to the point of Little Bo Peep, fashion has tired of the look and moved on to zips. Where ribbons are all about an eyelash-fluttering, breathy-voiced femininity, zips are tougher: teeth and nails, rather than sugar and spice. More peep show than Little Bo Peep.

The saviour of the zip is Alber Elbaz, the designer of Lanvin, who made long, exposed zips - snaking brazenly over the bottom rather than being hidden under the arm - an in-the-know signature of his chic, restrained cocktail dresses. In Paris, where zips until recently bore the stigma of being banned from haute couture as being too crass a fastening to sully a lady's closet, this caused a stir. In the front row, eyebrows were raised, or rather would have been had Botox not made this a physical impossibility.

Tragically, few of us are in the market for Lanvin, since you never know when that other kidney might come in handy, but I am sure you'll agree it's crucial to know the catwalk ancestors of one's Zara party dress. Anyway, the point is that if you want a sexy, look-at-me-I'm-so-on-trend bit of sparkle on a dress, forget huge gold buttons (so one year ago) and those outsized gobstopper faux-Marni baubles (so half a year ago, which is worse), and just zip it.